Matthew 25 workshop on measuring effectiveness set for June 29

Second in a series focuses on ending systemic poverty

by Scott O’Neill | Presbyterian News Service

LOUISVILLE — We say we want to end poverty, but how do we know if we are being effective?

That is a central question to be addressed in the second in a series of online workshops dedicated to the Matthew 25 focus on eradicating systemic poverty titled “End Poverty? Measuring Our Impact Holistically.” The Zoom event is Thursday, June 29, at 3 p.m. Eastern Time. Registration is required and participants can do so here.

Poverty is a complex issue that requires tools to interpret its complexity. In this online workshop, Andrew Kang Bartlett, associate for national hunger concerns with the Presbyterian Mission Agency’s Presbyterian Hunger Program, will introduce a resource called Whole Measures for Community Food Systems, which has been adapted to help account for the complex, interconnected nature of poverty. This holistic assessment model, created by the Center for Whole Communities, is a values-based, community-oriented tool that encourages dialogue geared toward change and features both qualitative and quantitative measures.

Kang Bartlett will focus on three key questions in the workshop:

• How do participants best focus time, talent and treasure to reduce systemic poverty?
• Do those who live closest to the problem ask for accompaniment and develop the strategy to address the problem?
• What is the collective vision of the end goal?

“Poverty is complex, so addressing it and measuring one’s progress in fighting it requires tools that account for complexity while also recognizing there is a vision for the world we want — beloved communities and a beloved economy,” said Kang Bartlett.

Whole Measures is both a planning and evaluation tool. As a planning tool, it helps  congregations and community members think strategically and learn more about the group’s potential impact. As an assessment tool, it provides a rating scale for five fields to help groups gauge their program’s impact on reducing poverty and increasing community health and wholeness. The fields are:

• Justice and fairness
• Strong communities
• Healthy people
• Sustainable ecosystems
• Thriving local economies

“As Christians and as a Matthew 25 denomination, we are called to end the scourge of poverty in our communities,” said Kang Bartlett. “We also know it can be difficult to eradicate systemic poverty and change attitudes, behaviors and racialized economics that impoverish people. Poverty causes hunger, so we feed our community through a food pantry — which is a compassionate ministry — but it does nothing to lessen the poverty that creates hungry people.”

Joining Kang Bartlett in the discussion around the Whole Measures engagement model will be Jim McGill, a mission co-worker serving in Niger, and Margaret Mwale, associate with the Presbyterian Committee on the Self-Development of People, who will reflect on the model and also share their experiences that affirm how measuring impact — if we aren’t careful — can at times be detrimental to community empowerment or long-term change. They will share examples of when “measuring impact” can go wrong and what things we can keep in mind to instead create meaningful transformation in and with communities.

Real-time Spanish interpretation for this workshop will be available.

To register for the workshop, visit pcusa.info/Impact.

Additional Matthew 25-focused online workshops on eradicating systemic poverty will occur on Aug. 28 on effective models for eradicating poverty (community organizing, advocacy and movement-building) and on Oct. 30 on international models for community-empowering, sustainable development.

Overarching Matthew 25-focused workshops on the other two main foci of Matthew 25 are tentatively scheduled for August around building congregational vitality and dismantling structural racism in November.

A comprehensive list of Matthew 25-related resources, including Bible study and worship resources, other online events, bulletin inserts, dismantling structural racism and building congregational vitality resources, can be found on the Matthew 25 resource page.